Ahhhhhh … an AARP vs. GOP poll smack-down. Truly a delight to behold.
Let’s start by stipulating that a public poll commissioned by or organized by an advocacy group should always be treated with skepticism and heightened scrutiny since, by definition, such a group has an agenda. If Cato or one of the pro-phase-out astroturf groups like 60 Plus did a poll on privatization, Social Security supporters would pick it over like crazy.
So, it’s no surprise that according to this AP story, the RNC rushed out a two page memo designed to discredit the AARP poll, charging that it relied on “slanted wording, misleading questions and an unrepresentative sample of the nation as a whole.”
But if you look at what their main gripe is, it turns out to be that the pollsters had the unvarnished temerity to use phrase ‘private accounts’ in their description of President Bush’s policy.
Says the article …
John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster, said the AARP survey was “skewed by age and skewed by politics,” and that the repeated use of the term “private accounts” results in a drop-off in support for Bush’s proposals.
That’s extraordinary, ain’t it? Sort of like how public support for gay marriage just drops right down when you say it allows marriage rights for gays.
How can they expect to get good numbers when they call private accounts ‘private accounts’? To paraphease Matt Yglesias from earlier today, it’s hard to figure how AARP can be too far off base using the dreaded “private accounts” language when the main privatizers themselves still used it as their phrase of choice no more than three weeks ago.
For my money, I would just as soon fast-forward to June, when word will come down from the RNC with the Russert stamp of approval that the accounts formerly known as private are only fairly styled ‘self-actualization and personal fulfilment accounts’ and be done with it.
